Swansea and Bradford's Wembley Memories

It’s been said that Sunday’s Capital One Cup Final at Wembley Stadium will be Swansea City’s bow in a major final and Bradford City’s first since winning the FA Cup in 1911.

However, both teams have played at Wembley much more recently than that. In fact, the Premier League outfit won promotion under the arch just two years ago.

Here, we begin our build-up to the first domestic Final of the season by looking back at the Swans’ and the Bantams’ previous visits to the national stadium.

Football League Trophy Final 1994: Swansea City 1-1 Huddersfield Town (Swansea won 3-1 on penalties) Swansea’s first appearance at Wembley came in the Final of Football League Trophy, the competition for teams in the bottom two tiers of English professional football.

Swansea got off to a dream start by taking the lead after only eight minutes. Striker Andy McFarlane taking his goalkeeper’s free- kick on his chest before slotting home from a tight angle.

Huddersfield equalised on 60 minutes through Richard Logan's far-post header and with no more goals in normal or extra time the game went to a penalty shoot out which Swansea won 3-1.

Second Division Play-Off Final 1996: Bradford City 2-0 Notts County Bradford’s only visit to Wembley came in 1996 (their 1911 FA Cup triumph came twelve years before Wembley was built).

Chris Kamara’s side opened the scoring after only eight minutes through teenage midfielder Des Hamilton. Hamilton went past three defenders and, despite stumbling, shot past County keeper Darren Ward, with the ball going in off the crossbar.

City doubled their advantage on 75 minutes after Mark Stallard volleyed home Ian Ormondroyd’s header across goal.

Third Division Play-Off Final 1997: Northampton Town 1-0 Swansea City Three years later Swansea returned to Wembley for the Third Division Play-Off Final against Northampton Town but the visit wasn’t as enjoyable.

With the game heading for extra-time, The Cobblers’ John Frain stepped up to score a retaken free kick past Swansea stopper Roger Freestone in the third minute of stoppage time.

Championship Play-Off Final 2011: Reading 2-4 Swansea City Swansea’s last visit to Wembley was less than two years ago when they beat Reading to reach the Premier League.

The match was a six goal thriller as the Welsh outfit went into half-time 3–0 up thanks to a brace from Scott Sinclair and a one from Stephen Dobbie.

Reading came close to pulling the scores back level in the early stages of the second-half through a Joe Allen own goal and a header from Matt Mills.

But Swansea secured victory in the 80th minute with their second spot kick, converted by Sinclair for his hat-trick.